Hit the Links in Bermuda

So what if winter’s not ideal diving season? You can make like Jacques Cousteau (or, in this case, James Bond) with a guided DPV (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) dive. The high-speed underwater sleds tow scuba-certified divers right from the sands of the Elbow Beach Hotel through a hole in the off-shore barrier reef and then out to the wreck of the Pollackshields, a large freighter that ventured too close to the reef in 1915. Trips are offered by Blue Water Divers at the hotel.

If you don’t dive, don’t fret. As the namesake of the Bermuda Triangle, the island holds plenty of mysteries, many of them explained at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute in Hamilton. There are museum-quality displays about wrecks, diving equipment, and aquatic flora and fauna, but the highlight is the theme-park-style ride, the Deep, in which an elevator-like descender takes “divers” on a ten-minute simulated plunge 12,000 feet below the surface. The late Peter Benchley of Jaws fame narrates a furious faux shark attack.